Brussels, 28/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) is calling on EU finance ministers to support the simplification of corporation tax for those working in cross-border SMEs.
In a press statement, the SME again regrets that the national taxation authorities had blocked a pilot project, at a technical level, which sought to tax the amount of profits according to the rules of the country where the SME was based. The Commission is hoping to relaunch this initiative at a political level, during the Informal Ecofin Council on 10-11 September (EUROPE 8 July p 13). The association stated that, "the UEAPME and its national member organisation are requesting finance ministers to revise the position of their administrations and all for at least the start up of pilot projects according to the taxation in the Member State of origin".
The UEAPME is also calling on ministers to react an agreement before the end of 2006 on a reduction of VAT rates for highly labour intensive services, either by adopting a new list of services of this type of services that benefit from less VAT or by systematically reducing the rates for local services.